Over 8.5 Corners-110
Belgium vs. Portugal EURO 2020 Round of 16 Picks and Expert Analysis (Archive)
One of the most anticipated matches from this round of games sees Belgium and Portugal come head to head, Belgium have been many peoples selection to win outright, whilst the Portuguese were many peoples dark horse selection, one of the two will be heading home Sunday night.
Belgium vs. Portugal
Sunday, June 27, 2021 – 3:00 PM EDT at La Cartuja de Sevilla Stadium
Belgium’s First True Challenge
Belgium might have two of the best players in world football right now in their ranks in the form of Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, but they are yet to face a real test in this year’s tournament. To be fair Denmark gave them a solid game, but they were overshadowed by the Cristian Erickson collapse and couldn’t mount a challenge as good as they eventually did against Russia.
Belgium comfortably beat Russia 3-0, Denmark 2-1, and Finland 2-0. Many might be expecting some bigger scoreline here but that not what this team is about, their happy to win 2-0 when they could win by much more in reality. Belgium’s now face the masters of knockout football in recent years, Portugal are the current European Championship title holders, and they did so by winning the title in 2016 without winning a single game in 90 minutes.
The Red Devils as they are known, come into this game having won 10 of their previous 12 matches, the other two games resulted in draws, meaning they are undefeated in 12. No doubt it’s going to be a very tricky game for Belgium, Portugal may not be as strong as many predicted but they will have a solid plan for this match, and you can never write off Cristiano Ronaldo.
How Portugal Pull Off The Upset
Portugal just barely scraped by to get out of this group, although they didn’t perform as bad as Germany, it was the Germans who handed Portugal their only defeat of the group stage, a 4-2 loss, which was certainly unexpected to see such a high score line, and that’s been a theme for this Portuguese side this championship, conceding goals. They have allowed 6 goals in the group stage, which is the most by any team who has made it into the final 16.
This is a very difficult match to call, both teams have their strengths and weaknesses, a feature of both teams however is their ageing back lines, most notably Belgium’s, who have an average age of 30 when combined all their defenders, Portugal’s defence average age is slightly better at 27. We expect both teams to find the back of the net in this game but have found it incredibly difficult to call the winner, although the Euro 2020 odds sportsbooks seem to think Belgium are the favorites at pre match odds of 2.45 compared to Portugal’s 3.0.
We feel Portugal will need to get back to their defensive ways if they wish to advance as being involved in a shootout with the likes of De Bruyne and Lukaku might not be the result they are looking for.
Conclusion and Best Bet
We see goals in this game when these two teams are involved only two players come into mind, Romelu Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese winger has racked up an eye watering 109 goals in 178 games for his national team, an incredible record. Ronaldo is also the joint highest national team goalscorer, no doubt soon to be highest of all time. Ronaldo is also this year’s competition top goalscorer with a total of 5 goals scored in the opening rounds. Lukaku has scored 3 goals in his nations opening three games and scored 63 goals in 96 , also very impressive.
We can’t look Ronaldo to find the back of the net at odds of +175, he is this tournaments top scorer and takes all of Portugal’s penalties and free kicks. Ronaldo has a very impressive leap and heading ability and we wouldn’t be surprised to see him score a header at odds of between +400/600, depending on the best online sportsbook.
Euro 2020 Pick: Cristiano Ronaldo To Score Anytime at +150 with The Best Online Sportsbooks
Best Prop Bet
With this game set to be somewhat end to end, we like the value on over 8.5 corners, there will be plenty of shots and deflections in this game. Although both teams group games averaged below 7 corners a game, this is a different type of match as both teams defending and determination steps up a notch, which in turn usually results in more free kicks and corners. We can easily see both teams getting 5/6 corners each in this contest.
Euro 2020 Side Pick: Over 8.5 Corners at -110 with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.